Removal of part of the liver (hepatic resection) is often performed to remove a tumor. Blood loss is a serious complication associated with this procedure. Multiple surgical techniques and devices have been developed to minimize blood loss and improve outcomes in hepatic resection. Several studies including a 2009 Cochrane Systematic Review of techniques for liver parenchymal transection have examined the efficacy of different methods of liver resection. Based on this review, the clamp-crush technique was favored due to low cost and with newer techniques such as cavitron ultrasound surgical aspirator (CUSA), hydrojet, and radio frequency dissecting sealer (RFDS) showing no improvement in morbidity or blood transfusion in comparison to the clamp-crush technique.
The clamp-crush technique generally involves crushing the liver parenchyma using a hemostatic clamp tool to expose small vessels and biliary radicals, which are then divided and sealed via radio frequency (RF) energy provided to the jaws of the tool. Various tools have been proposed for this purpose. However, challenges remain in providing a coaptive surgical sealing tool offering superior performance and efficiency in a simple and low-cost design. It is an object of the invention to provide an improved coaptive surgical sealing tool.